RAMANATHAPURAM
Two Deputy Controllers of Explosives from Chennai inspected the TNT slabs, the high-power explosives, recovered from the backyard of a house at Anthoniyarpuram in Thangachimadam and kept near the site for disposal on Tuesday.
After Tiruvadanai District Munsiff-cum-Judicial Magistrate P. Balamurugan insisted on an inspection of the explosives by the officials attached to the office of the Joint Chief Controller (JCC) of Explosives and their permission for their destruction, Prasanth Yadav and Sheik Hussain, Deputy Controllers of Explosives, inspected the TNT slabs at the site.
After the Magistrate wrote to the office of the Joint Controller of Explosives, Chennai, in this regard, the Deputy Controllers flew down from Chennai to Madurai and reached the site by road on Tuesday evening.
They were likely to give their opinion to the court on Wednesday, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena said. The explosives experts, however, would not inspect the thousands of rounds of ammunition kept at Ramanathapuram Armed Reserve Police quarters godown, he said.
A day after recovering the explosives and ammunition on the night of June 25, Thangachimadam police had moved the Tiruvadanai court, seeking permission to destroy the explosives near the site itself, stating that they were highly risky to transport or store them in a godown. They could explode due to vibration or friction during transportation, the police said.
The police had also produced a letter given by Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS), Madurai, to buttress their claim. The opinion given by the BDDS was endorsed by the regional forensic sciences laboratory here.
The local people have raised objection to the police keeping the explosives in the residential area for more than a week. The police have kept the TNT slabs in a pit in wet conditions and posted guards round the clock.